


Mediator

by NorthwesternInsanity



Series: AC/DC 2016 [2]
Category: AC/DC, Music RPF
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Rumors, breakdown - Freeform, changes, dealing with disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 09:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15946244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthwesternInsanity/pseuds/NorthwesternInsanity
Summary: AC/DC has managed to push through some pretty devastating complications leading up to the Rock or Bust tour, but an unexpected injury to Brian derails the tour, setting off an explosion of chaos that Cliff bears witness to.





	1. The Train Derails

**Author's Note:**

> The main story of the series, backed up from Rockfic. I also edited this one while reposting it here, as I wrote it at a time I was very passionate about the situation and I could type very emphatically without noticing certain wordings being awkward. As for whether I elicited any sympathy for Angus, who was sometimes made out to be the bad guy in this situation (as it is easy for passionate fans to get upset and forget to give the benefit of the doubt that rockstars deserve as human beings), it depends. Everyone could have handled it better, but it would have likely ended with Brian off the road anything, and perhaps for good reason as he is now looking to be contributing on a new album AC/DC is planning.

Cliff Williams had always been the behind the scenes guy of AC/DC.

No, not just the behind the scenes guy -that had been Malcolm. Cliff was the behind-the-behind-the-scenes guy. Other than the attention he received from some of their female fans who thought his feathered hair was pretty, or fans who were aspiring musicians that had an interest in bass, Cliff was in some ways the forgotten member, before beginning to list the road crew. Some fans could give the names of all his band mates when asked, but not his own. There were even the jokes floating around that AC/DC didn't have a bass player.

Truth be told, Cliff didn't mind it being the unsung hero. It meant he could simply enjoy playing bass onstage every night -no excessive fame other than the band he belonged to to have given him any other priority in his playing. And the fans that did run to him asking for autographs? He knew they were the true fans of the band approaching him -not just somebody wanting to have something from one of the greatest and most well-known frontmen in rock and roll.

And offstage? Being level headed, kind, and not having to worry about leading the band, Cliff was a go-to band member to just hang out and talk with -on the bus or backstage. If anyone in the band had a dispute or argument that Malcolm was too busy to work out, or that Malcolm was part of and too stubborn to come to a consensus on his own, Cliff could usually help work it out between his band mates somehow. He wasn't exactly sure how sometimes, but it usually started with them ending up in the same room backstage or on the bus, and ended with them all laughing and talking as if nothing ever happened. Things that usually resulted when a natural mediator was present.

However, things had recently turned upside down. Their main behind the scenes man was no longer with them.

Malcolm. That had been a shock. Not entirely though. 

Malcolm had known for a while things were changing. He told them he'd keep up as long as he could. Nobody wanted to think of what would happen the day that he could no longer play guitar with them and be the band mate that held them all together.

Malcolm wasn't the type to enjoy the spotlight either -he enjoyed hanging back with Cliff and Phil. He wrote the riffs that every fan could identify right off the bat. He was the organized one who did a lot of the tour planning with management and dealt with what happened when things went wrong. He was the brain behind the band.

Like Cliff, he got less attention than most of his bandmates -only slightly more than Cliff due to his name in common with his wild brother -and Malcolm was happy with that too.

Now he was gone. And immediately after he left, Phil got himself in a whole load of hot water that Cliff couldn't bear to think about following the way it unfolded. It had been bad enough when Phil had his round of trouble in the 80s, breaking down after Bon's death. Maybe this new addiction he had came about in response to Malcolm slow deterioration, but there was no way that was the only factor. And Cliff felt bad about it. 

It wasn't the only time that Phil had crashed and burned like that. This time it was worse. Cliff felt that they should have seen the signs and the pattern repeating. But whether it was due to everyone being preoccupied with Malcolm's memory loss, the planning of the new album without Malcolm, or both, they hadn't, and now Phil was out too.

Cliff now questioned constantly: _Where does that leave me..._

He chose to stay as the behind the scenes guy. Stevie and Chris simply did what they needed to do to perform and record as replacements. Angus and Brian seemed to have the most control, picking up the responsibilities that Malcolm vacated while still answering interviews they always would have done. They set up the tour dates and planned things out well. While Malcolm was definitely best at planning, Angus could hold his own. That was one thing the two of them had in common. Neither Young brother could stand disorder in the band -or anywhere in Malcolm's case. Everything had to be organized, planned out, and running smoothly, and if something wasn't, then everyone needed to pitch in to work around whatever problem immediately, or face a conniption fit.

There was only one thing left that Malcolm had done which Angus could not: play mediator in conflict where nobody could reach an agreement. With no official decision as to who the responsibility would fall to, Cliff silently realized it would likely fall to him.

What Cliff didn't realize was that a problem was headed their way. A real problem. One that could not be worked around right away. One that would cause a lot of upset and need somebody to sort through it.

Several months into the _Rock or Bust_ tour after the problems of filling Malcolm and Phil's places had been dealt with and things had started to run smoothly again, the unexpected came again.

Brian was losing his hearing.

They knew he'd damaged it by making the stupid-but-honest mistake of forgetting earplugs while racing, but other things happened to make it worse. In hindsight, they could have seen it coming even without the racing incident, but before it happened, nobody had.

Cliff had been there back in the studio when Brian had returned from getting a second check with his doctor to see if it was getting better and had to pass the news on to Angus.

_"Well, then... How is it? You know, did it improve?" the guitarist inquired._

_Brian stayed quiet for a long time and Cliff felt his stomach drop. For someone as optimistic and lighthearted as Brian to stay quiet that long and look uncomfortable about it too, it meant something bad._

_"It got worse," he said quietly, voice void of any of the usual cheerfulness it held._

_"What did the doctor say?" Angus asked bluntly. Cliff could see him tensing up, anticipating the curve ball that was going to take their carefully organized plans, turn them upside down, rock them like a hurricane, and shake them all night long, derailing the rock and roll train._

_Brian sighed. "Look, Angus, I want t' see how things go, a'right? Try things out, and if I can't make it work, then-"_

_"Did the doctor say it was okay or not?!" It was unlike Angus to raise his voice. Cliff backed up toward the door, still watching._

_"Well... Angus, he said I need tuh get off the road -or I could risk permanent loss. It's only a chance -it might heal some on it's own, and then I could return tuh playing just fine -it depends on how it goes. I want tuh assess me options here before we jump to conclusions now-"_

_"Bri, if he says you need to get off the road, then you're getting off the road," said Angus. His voice was no longer raised, but firm and devastatingly quiet in the way that said his mind was set and there would be no other answer._

_While Cliff hated to bench Brian, knowing that it would hurt like nothing else for the singer, he had to agree with Angus._

_"Jonno..." he started, using Brian's old nickname in hopes of being gentle, "I wish you could finish the tour too, but you need to think about your health. At least, for now, take a timeout and see how things go with some time. Full hearing loss isn't something to play with."_

_Brian nodded. The room was pin silent and the air was thick and hard to breathe due to the tension. Cliff felt his stomach tying itself up in knots as the singer stood up to leave._

_"Well... I understand, for now. If there's anything, call me. I'd best be on me way then." Brian quickly dismissed himself, his sentences short and clipped, voice strained. Cliff could see how he didn't make eye contact on the way out, instead looking downward for the most part on the way out. He closed the door to the room behind him, but Cliff could hear how his heavy-footed pace quickened desperately to get out of the building and knew the singer needed to be alone as much as he wanted to go comfort him. He knew it was likely impossible for Brian to sum up in words the shock and agony that had just hit him in the form of having to stop performing, and he couldn't fathom going through it himself._

_"He's crushed... Bloody Hell, Ang, I hate to see him like this-"_

_"He's in denial, Cliff, y'know? He wants to believe that the risk of further damage isn't that great, y'know, because he can't bear the thought of stopping -the only way he's going to realize that is if he isn't given a choice in the matter!" Angus' sharp reply provoked a shudder from Cliff._

_"I need to call our managers, let them know the tour needs to be put on hold until we can find somebody to stand in for Brian -because I doubt some big miracle is going to come up in the next couple of months -y'know? We can't have things on hold for much longer. And we gotta get Brian's gear sent back to him, at least for now." Angus was already rambling nervously, trying to figure out what to do._

Cliff had thought of jumping in then, but he knew it wasn't the time. Chaos had descended on them and everything was in disorder. They could work things out later once Angus calmed down, but Cliff had to let him get the idea that things were in a semblance of order, or anything he could say was going to go in one ear and out the other. Anyone who had worked with AC/DC long enough knew that Angus was impossibly stubborn when he was on edge. He really didn't want a yelling match between himself, Angus, and their tech, Brendan O'Brien. 

He decided to see how things sorted themselves out over the next few days and would do what he saw fit if he had to.

Things did sort themselves out some within a week. Into a new sort of chaos, that was.

The band was settled in a studio, hidden away while postponing dates, and working on selecting a stand in singer, whom Cliff wasn't going to believe would be a full replacement yet, whoever would it be.

Brian's stuff had been sent back to him and a game plan to get things back on track was in completion. Problem was there were so many rumors flying around the Internet, radio stations, and TV -fans all jumping to Brian's defense, thinking whatever they wanted -and most of it wasn't very nice.

Cliff did agree with it that he needed to call Brian at some point, and Angus did too. Since they were not far from Florida, Cliff hoped to see if he could find an opportunity to visit Brian in person instead sometime in the next week -even if it wasn't for long. He knew it would mean more to Brian than a phone call, especially when he'd just had his gear dropped off at home and was likely as far down in the dumps as he could get. Since they both lived in Florida and saw each other even during downtimes for the band, they were close enough for that too.

However, Cliff never realized that Angus, who usually could not care less about what critics thought, would think anything of the rumors aimed at him

It wasn't until another week and a half later when they were in the studio -Angus, Cliff, Stevie, Chris, and Brendan -that the shaky order fell apart again.

They were discussing the order of finding someone to take Brian's place. There was a list of names to start with -some of which they had considered and looked up on their own, and some who had volunteered.

And Angus was in rare form. For real -not just the grumpiness anyone could have from stress. It was worse than any other time Cliff had thought him to be in rare form, and even _those_ times had been bad.

It was scary. The 5'2" guitarist had practically become a real life version of the devil schoolboy he portrayed on stage. If he were in uniform with his costume horns on, Cliff would have been convinced.

"Brendan, why do you even have that Swedish guy on the list? _I said no!"_ Angus snapped.

Brendan sighed. "Angus Young."

It was his signature way to always address them by first and last name, and his stern tone took away the usual humorous quality to it.

"Chill out. That is the list of everyone who volunteered plus all the ones we considered. Part of what we're here today for is to eliminate the ones we know we don't want to save time. I will mark him off now. There is _no need_ to get up in such a twist." With that, Brendan marked Pelle Almqvist off the list of volunteers.

Angus practically wailed. "I dunno why you even put 'im there though -you know how egotistical and stuck up he makes himself to be! He'd act like he owns everything! Y'know?!"

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, I already marked off Dave Evans." Cliff could tell Brendan's patience was wearing thin, so he spared him that.

"Well, I dunno what he was even thinking when he volunteered too. He didn't work out then and our style has changed, y'know, to be even further away from his than it was, so I don't get why he even thought it would work now! I bet he was just looking at a chance to get even..."

"Angus, don't jump to conclusions." While Cliff had not been there in the short lived days of the band with Dave and knew nothing about it, it was unfair to assume the singer was trying to bring up anything bad from that long ago.

_"And what do you know about him?!"_

"There is _no_ need to _shout!"_ scolded Brendan, putting so much emphasis on the word "shout" that he was nearly shouting himself, even if he was all but unheard at the moment.

Cliff took sheer force of will to keep from flinching at this unfamiliar tone directed at him from Angus, but he was grateful to somehow have little trouble keeping his semblance of calm.

"You're right, Angus -I don't know anything about him as a singer or person. But I do know that his volunteering and whether he stays on this list or not isn't worth having a shouting match over."

Angus stayed quiet, much to their shock after his previous responses, but he still silently glowered down at the list.

After a minute, he spoke quietly.

"You can take Marc Storace off the list too. He was a big recommendation from the fans, but I don't see it working."

Brendan nodded. "Fair enough. Thank you for your input." He struck off Marc to punctuate his facetious remark toward Angus actually saying something without yelling or making excessively harsh comments. "It's after 1:00 o'clock. Why don't we all break for right now -get something to eat, or go outside for fresh air? I think it's time."

Chris and Stevie, who had been sitting in the back of the room because they'd already decided they didn't care who it was as long as they were competent and would fit in well with the band, stood up instantly.

"Yes, please!" Chris agreed, eagerly making a beeline for the door.

Stevie walked to the door in a much calmer manner. Being from the Scottish family, he was used to a lot of stubborn tempers. While Angus wasn't always the one he saw displaying it, he had seen it plenty of times in the rest of the family. 

"Are you coming, Angus?" he asked when he saw that Angus stayed right by the table while everyone else headed for the door.

"No, I think I'll stay here. I've got things to do, y'know. _Without_ all of you," he murmured.

Cliff didn't like the sound of that.

As they walked away from the building outside with Chris and Stevie heading to go somewhere in Chris' car, Cliff decided to go back. 

"Have anything you'd like to discuss Cliff Williams? I'm going for a walk to clear my head before it explodes. You're welcome to do the same or come along," invited Brendan.

"No Brendan. I'd actually like to go back inside and take a look at something on one of my basses." _Lie._

"Clifford Williams, so help me, if you mess up any of the sound setup I've done with your basses and your rigs..." Brendan left his threat unfinished.

"I'm not going to mess with that, Brendan. There was something I thought about trying the other day with my playing style -I probably will decide against going with it in performance, since I usually don't like to fix what's not broken, but I just want to see what it would sound like."

Cliff knew he wasn't a good liar. It was why he hated lying and hardly ever did; it always reminded him how bad he was at it. At least the upside was that usually everyone knew he was honest.

Brendan snorted. "Well, you go ahead and do that then. Make sure that demon spawn doesn't hear you. He's far too unpredictable today."

Cliff shook his head and went back into the studio. He went back to the room they'd had their intense argument in, expecting to find Angus still at the table brooding over the list, only to be surprised when he found the room empty.

"Angus?" he asked aloud. He felt stupid expecting a response when nobody was in sight. 

No answer.

He went into the practice area inside the recording room and found a chair yanked away from where it was usually situated by a microphone, turned at an odd angle as if somebody had grabbed it and pulled hard in a fit of rage. Guitar picks were scattered on the floor like somebody had just thrown a whole bunch of them, as well as sheets of paper that constituted several options for a set list. One of Angus' beloved cherry red SGs was slung front down over the couch, one string broken to prove it had been violently thrown.

"Why's this thrown all over the floor?" 

Cliff picked up the guitar and placed it back in its stand, knowing the guitarist would be upset enough about it later once he calmed down.

"Angus, _where ARE you?!"_ Cliff was getting worried as he sternly demanded the location of his bandmate. He began walking down the hall, trying to listen out if he could hear any indication of Angus. He didn't drive, so even if he'd left the building, he couldn't have gone far -unless if he was running like he did onstage, which was unlikely right now.

Cliff heard a soft thunking sound of some small object making contact with a wall. He peaked through the door window to an empty office on the right of the hallway. Seeing the lights out, he turned to the left and swiftly pushed open the door to the men's lavatory, not expecting what he would find.


	2. Getting Back in Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliff steps up to the plate to help Angus get the rock and roll train running again.

Angus sat on the floor, back slumped against the wall, looking down and glowering at the floor. Cliff looked around and saw that he had thrown his pack of smokes across the room, likely what he'd heard a second ago. It had obviously taken most of the angry energy out of the guitarist. 

"Go away!" Angus growled without looking up.

"I don't think I can do that, Ang..."

"I said, I have things to do alone!"

Cliff sighed and lowered himself down so he could get closer to eye level with Angus. His body protested, reminding him that he was more than half a decade older than the guitarist, but he forced himself down anyway and allowed his tone to cut at the walls standing between them without explicitly saying how stupid those walls were.

"And sitting on the bloody _nasty_ floor of the studio loo and throwing your cigarettes across the room, only after trying to break your guitar and refusing to talk to your bandmates is one of them? You're not yourself lately, Ang, and I worry about it. What's eating you?"

Cliff definitely wasn't prepared for the response he got. Right then, Angus looked up, eyes already red rimmed and spider-webbed like he'd been forcing it back for awhile, and he very suddenly burst into tears.

These were not silent, ashamed tears like the ones he'd tried to hide from Cliff when he'd entered the bathroom. This was sobbing that Angus didn't even try to control as it made it difficult for him to draw a normal breath, and it was pitiful. Without the tears and the building stress of the day to confirm it was only crying, Cliff would have questioned if he was having an asthma attacks by the spasmodic, involuntary, hitching gasps, and Angus Young did not cry easily, let alone like this.

Cliff had only seen Angus truly cry on two other occasions. He had cried when they met up for the first time after Bon's death, when everything had seemed so wrong and empty without him. And he had cried backstage when he was overwhelmed with anger after his guitar had feedbacked badly throughout the entire show at Donington -unconvinced by anyone who tried to tell him his playing had still sounded good despite the negative effect on his sound quality and that the fans knew the feedbacking wasn't his fault. 

He had probably teared up in front of Cliff a few times around the time that Malcolm was in rehab, and about the time that it was decided that Malcolm had to leave the band, but even as the most sensitive member of the band, and holding a lot of trust in his bandmates, Angus wasn't the type to regularly break down in front of them.

However, in most of the times that Cliff had seen Angus become less than stoic, it was when he felt helpless. Something had taken away his power to control the situation and things were spinning out into disorder.

Angus Young _could not stand_ disorder.

With the multiple sources of disorder currently plaguing the band, Cliff wondered if it really should have been a surprise that Angus was acting the way he was.

He retrieved Angus's cigarettes which he'd thrown before the guitarist to his feet.

"I think we need to talk," he said, softening his tone.

If anything, Cliff knew they should have talked a long time ago. He should have trusted his mediator instinct to jump in the day Brian left the studio in misery. Inwardly, he swore to himself and apologized to Malcolm for not taking on the situation sooner before his brother could reach such a critical stress level.

Angus nodded meekly, and Cliff couldn't believe how frail he looked at that moment. Sure, Angus had always been almost impossibly thin from all the running onstage, and he hadn't aged gracefully due to a few factors, but being older than him, Cliff never really thought of Angus as having aged so much. Especially since he couldn't fathom running as Angus did onstage for five minutes, let alone a whole show. But now, having crashed and burned from the morning's rage...

They went back to the room in silence and sat down. Cliff waited until Angus reduced his gasping to a few intermittent hiccups.

"S-sorry..." he murmured. 

Cliff didn't bother asking what Angus meant by that, whether he meant it for making a spectacle of himself now, his wild behavior the past few days and especially this morning with Brendan, both, or something else.

"I won't ask the obvious question. You're not okay. Don't pretend to be, because I know you're not. And it doesn't take much to figure out this has to do with this morning... Question is, what's all this about?" asked Cliff.

Angus tossed his hands up in the air, making a figurative statement. 

"This whole mess, y-y'know?" he sniffled. "Look at this whole thing, Cliff... Mal's n-not here anymore, I gotta k-keep this thing going, y'know, and now I've failed him, and Bon too, and everyone's so angry with the band and think I don't care when I do; I've made a b-bloody mess of things!"

He nearly broke down again with his admission.

_"Ohhhh,"_ Cliff murmured. 

It now made too much sense why Angus was so out of whack. Cliff could have kicked himself for not seeing it sooner, knowing the reasons were tormenting him.

One of the things Malcolm had always stressed, especially after Bon's death and even as he was leaving the band with his failing memory was keeping it going. He had stressed continuing the band after Bon because Bon wouldn't have wanted it to stop. Now Malcolm was gone, but he'd told Angus to keep it going as long as he could. Angus had a duty to his brother to at least get through all the Rock or Bust touring, and to keep the band running in honor of Bon.

Now, the tour had been derailed. Angus felt that he'd let Malcolm down.

With the way Angus was so quick to carry on with everything after Malcolm left, it was easy to forget how much his brother's absence after so many years affected him. Perhaps it hadn't bothered Angus as much when he knew he was doing what Malcolm wanted. Now, it was painfully obvious that Malcolm was gone. And now that Angus wasn't able to keep it to himself any longer, it was clear just how hard he was taking it inside.

"Cliff, Mal would've had this solved in less than three days, y'know? I dunno what to do here. I've let him down so badly," said Angus distraughtly. 

Cliff looked Angus square in the eyes, wishing he could take the situation with Brian, Phil, and Malcolm and make it all go away.

"Calm down. Please calm down, Angus. I hate seeing you like this."

"You said the same thing about Brian. And now he's gone. Maybe I could have given him a chance like he wanted, but I watched Mal deteriorate the past few years... I just couldn't see it happen again, y'know? I couldn't watch him hurt himself and see him get worse overtime."

Cliff winced. That had been hard for him to watch Malcolm go downhill, without being the brother he'd lived, grown up, played, fought, and founded the band with.

"That doesn't mean I'm not concerned about everyone else too," Cliff replied. "It was bloody awful sending him away like that, really. But you knew it had to be done to protect him from hurting himself, and he would hate seeing you like this. Malcolm would have done the same thing. Maybe a different way, but that doesn't matter right now. We're doing what we can, and if we want to get things back up and running the way Malcolm and Bon would want it, we need to work together as a whole band and hear each other out on a stand in."

"I know that," hissed Angus. "Bloody Hell. I just hope Brian somehow gets better. I don't know how, because it didn't sound good either."

For once, Cliff was relieved that Angus was upset about something. It proved that his blunt dismissal the other week was purely the result of the disorder. Not because he didn't care about Brian as everyone -the press, fans, and anyone else outside of the band -wanted to think. Oh, how Cliff wished people would keep their big mouths shut until they knew all sides and gave some benefit of doubt when reading all the overly-dramatized news reports on the Internet before attacking whoever they wanted. It only justified their reasons for keeping the band off social media.

"Angus?" Cliff waited until he was being looked at clearly to attempt to break down the chaos into some order that Angus could approach without panicking.

"If we're getting a stand-in singer, then we're finishing the tour. It's that simple. We can't please everyone, because if we cancelled the tour for those who want Brian, people would be upset over that too. We might as well finish the tour since we know that's what Malcolm wants. Whatever happens with Brian -if some miracle happens and he gets better and can rejoin, or if he doesn't after we finish the tour with whoever we get -we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

After a moment of letting it sink in, Angus seemed calmer. He nodded.

"Okay Cliff... I've got that. Is there anything you think we should do with regard to it going around that Bri got kicked out or fired? Since everything having to do with that is a mess if it wasn't already."

It was true that the rumors were escalating the situation and making things seem bigger than they were, but even being the type who wanted to tell it clearly for everyone whether they listened or not, Cliff was more than fed up with it too.

"To hell with them!" he exclaimed, "We know what's true and what's not. They're upset because Brian's hurt. There's really no one to blame, but naturally they want to blame somebody, fair or not. You're in charge of the band now, so they blamed you. If Mal were here, he'd have gotten all those nasty things at him and he wouldn't have cared one iota about it -and neither do I outside of what it's caused here. This tour is for him, just like you said, and we're playing every single date we plan, whether Brian can get back or not."

"Do you think he's mad at me? Since it's said he got 'kicked to the curb?' I know those weren't his own words... I'd just hate for him to think it was like that, y'know?"

Angus' crying had completely stopped and his voice had recovered to its usual gruff tone rather than the anxiety-borne whimper he'd started with. It didn't stop Cliff from hearing a tinge of guilt underneath the exhaustion of everything they'd been through.

"You should call him. You said he was in denial then, and he was, so now that he's not, he wouldn't be mad if he was to begin with. He probably is down though. I'm pretty sure if you called him, it would tell him what he needs to know. And he'd be happy to hear from you anyway," Cliff insisted. "Because have you ever known Brian to hold a grudge? And have you ever known anything bad we've dealt with to not eventually end up okay?"

Neither of them could come up with a time that Brian had. He was just too easy going and kindhearted in nature. And, even if some of the bad things in the past hadn't ended exactly as they'd all wanted, things had resolved.

Angus took a few minutes to shake off his nerves before making up his mind to call Brian, even if it wasn't for long before Brendan and the others got back.

"And Angus?" asked Cliff.

Angus looked over expectantly.

"I know you and Mal always liked being in charge, but just because you're in charge doesn't mean you can't ask for help when you get in over your head -okay? I won't mess up your system."

Cliff decided to be slightly facetious when letting Angus know he was happy to play mediator -even if the Scottish guitarist could live up to stereotypical stubbornness.

Angus looked down, trying to hide a grin. It was the first time he'd smiled since the day Brian came in with the news and the wheels came off the bus.

The phone rang... And rang... And-"

"H'llo?" 

An all too familiar gruff voice, just lacking so much energy, sounding so miserable.

"Brian? I wanted to call and see if you were alright, y'know, it's Ang-"

"Angus?" Brian's gruff voice perked up so much that Cliff nearly had to swallow as his throat tightened. "Ey! How ya' doin', is everything a'right there? Tell me what's goin' on -I'm bored outta me mind! Ah, am I ever glad to hear from you..!"

There wasn't much to tell, but Angus spent five minutes giving a brief explanation of what was going on, and saying that he did hope things would work out for Brian in the end, even if it wasn't before the end of the Rock or Bust tour.

Cliff ended up talking to Brian some too. While he'd have preferred to wait to see Brian in person, he still planned to see him. He figured there would be plenty of other things to discuss when they got the chance.

When the phone call ended, the others were arriving back. The difference was striking.

"Any ideas?" asked Stevie. He initiated it this time, not wanting Angus to blow up at Brendan and get both tempers going at once right off the bat.

"I think all the guys we looked up on our own and put on the list for consideration -we'll audition them all. The ones who volunteered, I think we should see about Axl Rose first. If he can be on time and flexible with our schedule, I think he's got a good sound and would be the best on the list. He's got a lot of passion for AC/DC anyways." Angus stated, matter-of-factly.

Brendan looked surprised. "Okay, then. We're just about ready to start calling them up if that's the case. Anything else?"

"I should draft something we could send to the press to explain the situation in general terms, y'know?"

Cliff was expecting that. Angus had no trouble giving information, but he often explained every bad situation in a very objective manner. Sometimes they got criticism for not caring in that case, but it was to avoid sounding biased, and it was his way of maintaining the band's privacy -as well as Brian's in this case -but at least he was deciding to do something on his own accord. If Brian wanted to release anything, it would be his choice as to how much of his own condition he would disclose.

Brendan looked at Angus directly.

"Angus Young? It's great to see you back here -whoever has been here filling your place has not been one bit pleasant!"

Chris snorted. Cliff tried not to laugh, but when Stevie lost it, he did too. Angus finally laughed after a few seconds.

"Sorry about that; I suppose I could have handled a few things better... And uh, Brendan? I'm afraid I kind of broke a string..." Angus sheepishly admitted.

Brendan looked at him, then though the door to the practice area, and back at Angus...

"Ai-yi-yi, I can't even leave you all alone for an hour," he grouched, resulting in more laughter from the guys as he went on rambling.

"How in the world did you manage to break a string in the time I was gone -never mind, I don't even wanna know how; at least you didn't set your amp on fire AGAIN...!"

As Brendan stormed out of the room, they all could tell the exact moment he found Angus' guitar.

"Ai-yi-yi... Angus Young -WHAT did you DO?!" His rhetorical question rang out muffled through the door, causing Stevie to raise an eyebrow, and Chris to laugh again.

"Ooh, Ang, you are gonna get it now! Once you get him going, he'll never stop!"

Things were still in disorder, and Brian's condition was uncertain, but at least for now it would be okay.

Cliff could have sworn he heard a familiar voice in the back of his head, one they hadn't heard since 1980.

_You did good, fixin' this one up, Cliff. Still the mediator -now the primary one since Mal can't be there!_

Cliff smiled to himself, shaking his head as he left the studio that afternoon.

"Thanks, Bon."

Regardless of the end result, just like every other time a surprise put them down the Highway to Hell, they would be Back in Black quite soon.


End file.
